Africa: South Africa Off to a Winning Start

By Helge Schütz

Defending African champions South Africa got off to a winning start at the Africa Netball Cup with a comprehensive 78-27 victory against Zimbabwe yesterday at the Wanderers court in Windhoek yesterday.

There were also comfortable victories for the Pent Series champions Uganda and Malawi on the opening day of the tournament that will see nine teams battling it out to become continental champions.

South Africa are the top-ranked side at the tournament with a world ranking of fifth, while they won the previous edition of the Africa Cup in Cape Town two years ago.

They, however, fielded quite a new team with only four members remaining from the 2019 squad, namely Bongiwe Msomi

Chawane Khanyisa, Izette Griessel and Monique Reynecke, while they also missed out on last week's Pent Series, and took a while to hit top gear.

Zimbabwe opened the scoring and matches South Africa in the opening exchanges, with the sides still level at 7-7 midway through the first quarter.

South Africa, however, started to assert themselves and with goal shooter Ine Marie Venter in fine form, took a 16-11 lead by the end of the first quarter.

With wing attack Bongiwe Msomi and centre Izette Griessel in fine form, they gradually pulled away to take a 35-21 lead at the half time break.

By the third quarter they were completely in charge, conceding only two goals to go 58-23 ahead, before they closed off a commanding 51-point victory.

South Africa coach Dorette Badenhorst said she was satisfied with their performance.

"It was quite tough out there, it's always physical playing against the African teams, but my team played well and I gave all 12 my players an opportunity on the court. We had four new caps so I'm a happy coach," she said.

"It's the first time that my team played together since travelling to Ireland and we didn't play in the Pent Series last week, so I think it was just about getting used to the circumstances here, the heat, and the court, and I think we just needed to settle down. We knew it would be physical but the girls tried to stick to the game plan, and I think they really did well, to come back from that first quarter and put Zimbabwe under pressure," she added.

Badenhorst said she expected a tough campaign.

"For me there are no easy games and all the African teams are tough to play against. Malawi and Uganda are tough competitors, but we won't underestimate any of the African teams."

In the opening match yesterday morning, Malawi, who are ranked sixth in the world, beat Zambia 70-36, after leading 19-9 at the end of the first quarter, 34-18 by the second quarter, and 51-28 by the third quarter.

In the second match, Uganda, ranked seventh in the world beat Tanzania 77-29, after quarter scores of 20-7, 42-14 and 60-21.

In the late match yesterday Namibia beat Botswana 50-41.

This article originally appeared in The Namibian.

Photo: Helge Schütz